Author(s)

Ilona de Milliano¹, Amos van Gelderen^2,3, Peter Sleegers⁴

¹Department Educational and Pedagogical Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
²Kohnstamm Institute, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
³Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
⁴Department of Educational Organization and Management, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.

This longitudinal study explored the degree in which level and development of writing proficiency of a group of 63 low-achieving adolescents can be explained by their engagement in literacy activities. These adolescents were intensively followed from grades 7 to 9, measuring their writing proficiency and their engagement each year focusing on affective, cognitive and behavioral aspects of engagement. Results indicate that level of writing proficiency increases from year to year, but that this development cannot be predicted by any of the engagement measures. In contrast, the level of writing proficiency of the students can be explained by aspects of affective and behavioral engagement. Therefore, the results underline the importance of distinguishing between the level and development of writing proficiency in examining relationships between engagement and writing achievement of low-achieving adolescents. Although average level of students’ writing proficiency is explained by affective and behavioral engagement, these aspects of engagement do not explain growth in writing proficiency in the course of the three grades studied. Implications of these findings for future research and for educational practice are discussed.

Writing Proficiency, Engagement, Low-Achieving Students, Motivation, Self-Regulation, Classroom Observations, Secondary Education

de Milliano, I. , van Gelderen, A. and Sleegers, P. (2017) Explaining Level and Development of Writing Proficiency of Low-Achieving Adolescents by Different Types of Engagement. Creative Education, 8, 693-715. doi: 10.4236/ce.2017.85054.